To celebrate what would have been Charlotte Bronte’s 201st birthday, I’m taking The Mourning Ring on a tour across the blog-o-sphere the week of April 19-26. With the help of Amy Bruno at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, I’ll be sharing interviews, excerpts, and guest posts about the novel.

And I’m back in the drafting trenches, trying to churn out the first draft for this new novel as fast as possible. Firm deadlines and community are necessary for my drafting process. That’s why I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo again this year. Unlike it’s November sibling (where all participants commit to writing 50k words toward a novel in 30 days), April’s event is more geared toward individual writing goals. Each participant (they’re called campers) sets their word count target before the month begins, and the site provides analytics that track your progress throughout the month. Campers can choose to be sorted into “cabins” of 20, and these writers work as a team to encourage each other and meet their goals. With the added bonus of daily camp mail from established authors on themes like “slogging through” and “self-care,” the month is a lot of fun.

Three years ago I completed the first, very rough, draft of The Mourning Ring, thanks to Camp NaNoWriMo. I hope to win again this April.

It’s not too late to join if you are feeling inspired to tackle a new (or old) writing project!